i'm not saying they have to hand over all the cash just that they have to have it if the wreck the bike, then they can buy it and deal with it so i don't have to mess with a trashed bike, and i like to see a drivers license with an endorsement on it so i know the have some that they know what they are doing, and car keys so if they take off i can move their car somewhere that they'll never find it so when they come back for it they won't get it until they pay or i get the bike back and if they don't i do what i want the car ever see a 1993 civic jump a bus?lol

 

how do i know you wouldn't be robbing me?

 

This is a good point. What is the bike has a problem and is going to break down 10 miles down the road? You just gave the owner $3,000 for a POS.

 

Man, you folks must live in some high crime areas with some real ne'er-do-wells running around there. Here, if the guy doesn't come back, we just hunt him down and kill him.

 

I would walk away if asked for any amount of cash! Never give 3000k cash to a stranger & ride away on a stolen bike or a lemon about to break down etc etc.

The last bike i bought in London (16yrs ago), the guy took my keys for the old banger i arrived on, he took my driving license, he also asked to see some cash to show intent to buy (deposit money) & he really surprised by taking a Polaroid photo of me!!! He did all this very casually with good humor & i thought he was a clever guy.

The amount of horrible moments i've had before that day with selling my bikes, when someone goes for a test ride 10 minutes longer than expected & i realize i've got pretty much nothing to tell the police should the unthinkable happen.....just been lucky or i had good people judgment i suppose.

 

i wish my state was more like texas or the south for that matter(used to live in miss) up here the damn criminals have more rights than the victim of the crime it sucks ***** i can bairly shoot some one if they break in to my house and if i don't kill them i go to jail for less than lethal force

 

I've had a couple of tense moments letting guys test ride - I'm still not sure the best way to go. Last episode was just this past week - I finally put the XR50 up for sale my kids learned to ride on. Arranged to meet a guy at a carpool parking lot - he asked about a test ride, I figured that was a safe place, big enough to hit all 3 gears but not so big that he'd get into too much trouble. I fire it up, he gets on (15 years old), then proceeds WFO directly to the friggen highway. No helmet of course. His mother about had a stroke - little did she know I was quietly having one too. He came back after a couple minutes, loaded it up, and handed over the money - but it was tense for those couple of minutes. Other time almost led to a fried clutch on a KX65 by a 250 lb. Harley rider - I was lucky there too in that he also loaded up & handed over the cash.

I can see both sides of this one.

 

Yeah, you definitely have to use your best judgment based on a variety of different circumstances. For example, the first bike that I ever went and looked at was at a private sellers house off of Craigslist. I went with my family and our SUV and trailer along with all of my little brothers and sisters. The guy had absolutely no problem at all letting both me and my father take the bike for a test ride. It was a DRZ400.

You have to use your best judgement depending on how the person sounds on the phone, what they arrive in, who they arrive with, their demeanor in general, the area in which you are selling or going to look at the bike, the questions they ask you about the bike, etc.

Never hurts to Google someones name either just to make sure. Mike greene Raleigh, North Carolina etc.

Both buyer and seller should conduct an equal amount of due diligence. And of course, never hurts to have a concealed carry

 

Here in Alabama, there was a series of robberies where the criminals would advertise a car on craigslist and rob the propestive buyer when they showed up for a test drive.

 

I'm thinking about selling my '07 Monster, and was going to go the Cash-in-hand-before-a-test-ride route, but some of you might have just talked me out of that. I know it would eliminate a lot of test pilots, but I hadn't considered that a serious buyer might be turned off by it. Show me your license, and give me your keys isn't a bad idea. I still won't let the bike go until a price has been worked out. I know I'm not lying about my bike, so if we work out a price, then you ride it and think it wasn't what I said it was, you walk and I still have my bike. I've watched people I don't know pull away on my bikes too many times. I haven't been burned yet, but I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.